Chapter 233

On 29th May, Zetflix released the director’s cut for [Disconnected] on their platform. Their content team had already verified the quality of the movie and they were very confident that the movie was going to do well.

Moreover, the marketing strategy for it had been quite good till now.

Having the critics that disliked the movie before watching it again and reviewing it was something that had worked well. The contrasting opinions of theirs had made the audience curious.

Was this actually a good movie?

Can the director’s cut really have such a big impact?

Can they rectify the inconsistent pace of the story?

These were the questions that had made their way into people’s minds. Most of them still thought that this was not a good movie and it was just a marketing campaign without anything to back itself up.

But they weren’t sure about their thoughts.

A ‘What if’ was always in their mind.

In that case, the only way to know about it was to watch the movie. Anyway, it was on Zetflix.

Those who already have the subscription didn’t have to pay for anything and could just watch it in the comfort of their homes. There was still a mixed response to the director’s cut with some of them completely not interested in it and others wanting to watch it to know if it would actually be any good.

The latter applied to the woman who had actually gone to watch the movie in the theatre but had been left disappointed and in an angry fit, she had written a bad review for the movie.

‘Should I watch it again?’

Currently, she was in a dilemma wondering if she should watch the movie again or not.

She still remembered how bad a day it was when she had gone to watch [Disconnected] in the movie theater. She had felt like kicking the director for giving her a bad time.

When she heard the news that a director’s cut was coming to Zetflix and the early reviews said that it was a way better movie, she felt interested.

Her anger towards the movie had died down as time went on and the only reason she was even thinking about it was because she had nothing else to watch on her Zetflix account.

She also wanted to see if the movie is actually good in the director’s cut. If it was, then at least she would feel much better.

‘Whatever. I could watch the first thirty minutes and if it’s the same, then I would just close it.’

Thinking that, she played the movie and the opening sequence came up.

‘The colour palette is a bit lighter and the first scene is also a bit longer.’

She thought, quickly noticing some details.

She still remembered a lot of details of [Disconnected] that she watched in the theatre. She had a habit of observing things and remembering them for a long time since childhood, so she was easily able to compare both the versions.

Just twenty minutes into the movie and her verdict was clear.

‘It’s really like a different movie. The plot still follows the same storyline but the details and scenes are a lot more. All the unnecessary things are edited out that made the theatrical version boring.’

She thought as the movie went on.

The woman particularly loved the scene in which Mark first met Andrew as it clearly showed the differences between the two of them and Mark’s personality of only being friends with someone if he sees something special in them.

She really wondered why such a scene didn’t make up to the theatrical version.

In the end, after watching the whole movie, she logged in to the website ‘Do you like the movie?’ with a smile and left a positive review.

<This movie is very good. Not the version they released in the theatre but the one on Zetflix. I want to apologise to the director for cursing on him after watching the movie before. His cut is the best and makes up for a great viewing experience. Loved the climax scene. Andrew completely owned everyone. I don’t know that actor but he’s fab.>

After writing the review, she felt a bit satisfied.

Just like her, other people were also watching the movie and those who completed it quickly gave a positive review. Most of these were people who have cursed the movie before online.

Now all of them were saying the opposite things.

***

Just three days after the Zetflix release for [Disconnected], an unexpected data came out that shocked everyone. When the management team saw it, their eyes were all wide and the thing that they had never expected have came true.

[Disconnected] was trending at number 6 in Top 10 movies to watch list. Not only that, it was trending on over 34 countries in the Top 10 list.

These numbers were truly shocking.

For context, just last month, Zetflix had brought up a blockbuster gangster drama for 130 million dollars and it had only managed to reach Top 3 in America and has trended in 52 countries in Top 10 in the world.

Compared to that, [Disconnected] was bought for just 5 million dollars and was already in 6th position in just three days. Like that, it was almost confirmed that the movie would be higher at the end of the week.

At the same time, the reviews from the audience were extremely positive.

All of them were comparing it to the theatrical version and saying that the movie was totally different and worth a watch. One of the reasons behind such a reception was also because most of these people have very low expectations after watching the theatrical version.

But that reason only applied to people who watched it in theatres.

A lot of people just found it on Zetflix and wondered why it wasn’t successful at the box office.

When the old Executive director of the content department got to know about it, he quickly ordered, “Get [Disconnected] a banner on the front page and try to promote it more on social media accounts. Also, try to make up more hype for it. We need to make sure that it reaches more people. This time, we have surely hit the jackpot.”

The marketing team quickly got to work after that and promoted the movie further. Jesse Ross who was finally feeling at peace after seeing such a great reaction to his movie himself helped in the marketing by giving out as many interviews as he could.

In those interviews, he didn’t hold back against SGA and Black Line Cinema and spoke about how they pushed up their own version despite him not agreeing with it.

As results were very clear to everyone, the audience sided with Jesse.

A lot of insiders from Hollywood wondered if Jesse had decided to retire as no one in their sane mind would go against SGA like that until they want to endanger their careers.

But they didn’t know what kind of a person Jesse was.

He had already decided to open his own personal film studio to produce his movies. If SGA actually came after him, then he had plans to just focus on independent, low budget, festival movies.

It’s not like they were going to personally stop him from making movies.

All this just gave fire to a controversy that helped [Disconnected]. More and more people got to know about it as the days went on.

Just on the fifth day of its release, [Disconnected] was already in the 5th position and was getting a crazy amount of watch hours which meant a lot of profit for Zetflix.

At the end of the first week, it was in the 3rd position and people have started to wonder whether it would top the list.

***

On a Hollywood gossip sub, few people were talking about the movie and how it was faring at Zetflix. With a totally unprecedented amount of watch hours, it was the first time that a flop movie was doing so well on Zetflix or any other streaming platform.

A lot of people were even calling it the second coming of [Disconnected].

At the same time, a lot of people online were hating on Black Line Cinema and SGA. All of it was giving a lot of topics for the gossip sub to discuss about.

[Boycott Living: SGA and Black Line Cinema are in serious trouble. They are denying the allegations but everyone could see that the version they put out was shit compared to the director’s cut. They messed up and won’t accept it.]

[Cats have OCD: Yeah and Jesse Ross got support from some directors. A lot of them just don’t like their movies being tampered by the studios. Even famous directors face this issue but SGA clearly ruined a great movie. I would have regretted missing out on it.]

[What movie you want next: I think it’s good that happened. [Disconnected] got a large audience on Zetflix and I don’t think it would have earned more than 200 million dollars at the box office. It’s a good movie but not a high concept one.]

[Dirt in your eye: I think it’s Zetflix who got lucky here. They got the movie cheap and now it’s a big hit. I heard that they are giving out bonuses for hitting a jackpot. Their subscribers are happy and Black Line Cinema are probably crying themselves to sleep.]

[Jack died because Rose was over 25: Hey guys! Check this! One of the clips from [Disconnected] just got viral.]

…

//DreamNote// (5 September)

I have an exam tomorrow, the second chapter is only half done. I might finish and upload it in morning if I get a chance, or it will be uploaded tomorrow evening when I return home.